Now,
this is a bit of an obscure one. Dah Yang are a Taiwanese company who
made all sorts of toys, and back in the 1980s Kinsman seems to
be their line of robots - the most spotted (i.e. what came out of Google...)
is something called the Robot Machine or Robot Conveyor, a rather neat
battery-operated item (see picture to the left - it's the big
crazy thing just over the horizon). Dah
Yang themselves are actually still going, take a look at their
site.

Until
recently, I knew next to nothing about this line. I still don't know
a whole lot, but I did recently acquire a boxed Andro-Bike from the
line. As well as some other interesting snippets (such as the toys apparently
being licensed from Bandai), this also featured a picture of the range
on the back, or at least some of it. As well as showing off some of
the larger, electronic toys, this has pictures of the smaller plastic
transforming figures that I'm particularly interested in.

Despite
only having owned three of the figures, one of which is a bit pathetic,
I rather like the Kinsman line - while there only seem to be
a small handful of moulds, these are pretty imaginative for a line of
such small standing, at a time when most second division manufacturers
were making very simple, childish toys, or just grabbing whatever they
could from other companies. Shame they're so bloody hard to find, really.

I'm
not going to waffle on about the larger toys, seeing as I know nothing
about them whatsoever. Instead, I'm going to cover the smaller toys
that I either know something about, or can at least make some educated
guesses in that direction =)

'NISSAN'

No
idea what this figure was actually called, of course, but the car mode
is clearly based on a Nissan 300ZX Fairlady (the same car was used by
Bandai for the Machine
RoboFairlady
Robo, released in the West as Gobots/Robo
MachineMajor
Mo). The toy is 4.5" long and made entirely from plastic, but it's
respectable quality stuff, meaning a solid, sturdy vehicle.

The
detail level is fair - there are some engraved details, and the transparent
windscreen is a nice touch. Best of all are the big chunky wheels -
slightly out of scale, but is does lend a rough and tumble look to the
thing. An interesting feature is the front bumper rotates so (I'm guessing)
the robot head can look out. I mean, it looks weird, but it's interesting.
The only sticker on the car is the line logo - a drawing of a robot
head pretty much the same as this one's robot mode (and the same as
the one on the Kinsman packaging).

The
transformation sequence itself is quite nice - while the layout is the
same old arms from doors, legs from the back end, face underneath thing,
it's nicely done, and having the legs slide instead of flipping around
is a quality move. The figure is filled with these, such as the elbows
on the arms and the separate feet, and the head can look up a little
because of that weird gimmick mentioned above.

Overall,
the thing does look impressive, standing around 5" tall and covered
in chrome. And is it me, or do those legs and feet look rather similar
to those of the Transformers figure Tracks? The level of detail
on the robot mode is terrific, and the chrome adds an extra layer of
quality. Even the head cast is great - this is often where more obscure
robot lines fall down, but this one is a detailed sculpt with a noble
character to it.

The
only real blemish is the shoulders being attached at the hip - the erstwhile
front wheels are placed to hide the joints somewhat, but it does hurt
any articulation. Regardless of the minor faults, this is a pretty neat
figure, and one I'm glad I picked up.

As
well as this blue version, the toy was also issued in two other colour
schemes - red and white. I only have the blue one; click here
for a picture of the red example, courtesy of Super
Toy Archive
owner Alex Bickmore; or here
for a tiny picture of the white one, taken from the back of the box.

'TOYOTA'

I
actually had this one as a kid... Christmas 1985, along with the Transformers
Sideswipe and Tracks. Actually, Tracks was my brother's, I was just
older and bigger (at the time, anyway - these days he could probably
throw me through a wall). Anyway, this one had a friction motor
as well, even if the design was along the same lines as the Jeep and
the Nissan. The poor chap doubled up as Hoist for a few years (as it
was the green version) - not sure what exactly happened to him when
Hoist proper arrived, either a stint as Hound or retirement seems likely.

Having
recently got one again, he's smaller than I remember, but this is probably
more a case of me being bigger. The truck is modelled on a Toyota Hilux
truck - this was possibly the most ubiquitous toy in 1980s toy robot
lines, with versions appearing in Diaclone/Diakron/Transformers
(Trailbreaker
and Hoist, or their predecessors), Gobots/Machine Robo
(Small
Foot/Offroad Robo), Winch Robo/Robo Machine (Robot
Winch Truck) and Convertors/Robocar (Wagon)
- and that's probably just for starters. This one is quite a nice version.
It's almost exactly the same size as the Transformers version,
and the green isn't quite as gaudy as I remember it being. The plastic
is generally quite sturdy, while the wheel hubs are chromed and the
tyres are rubber. Not bad. The head is clearly visible in the back,
but in mitigation the thing should come with a chromed roll-bar and
the rifle could be mounted in the back, which might otherwise distract
from this problem.

Transforming
the truck is quite simple, but neat at the same time - the walls of
the back fold out to form the arms and properly reveal the head, and
then the bulk of the cab/bonnet slides along black rails to form the
chest. The front corners then turn up to form the feet. Simple, but
rather effective.

The
arms are a bit weird, they don;t go any closer to the body than is shown
in the picture. The weird thing is they're not entirely unlike those
of the Trailbreaker mould, with the sides of the truck forming 'trays'
for the arms, just facing outward and less complex. At least the elbows
can move; the toes can move too, he's like a Soul of Chogokin.
Or not.

The
friction motor the truck mode uses can also be deployed in robot form.
It's hinged, and can either stay on the robot's back out of the way
(pleasingly not upsetting the balance; the figure rests on the flat
tips of the black 'rail', with the nominal feet not actually used for
balance, more for decoration), or fold down to 90° so he can race
around on a smooth surface at a crazy angle.

Truth
be told, the Toyota isn't the same slick minor masterpiece that the
Nissan is, but it is an interesting enough figure that doesn't just
look like a knockoff.

'JEEP'

This
figure seems to follow much the same lines as the Nissan, simply being
a transforming vehicle. It's difficult to make too much out from the
pictures I have, but the design owes a fair amount to the Transformers
figure Hound
I think it's fair to say.

The
legs and arms are less complex - the former seem to come out of the
sides of the jeep, while the legs are a single piece that folds down
through 180°. The chromed gun would seem to be capable of being
mounted in the back of the jeep mode as well, which is a nice touch.

As
well as the red version, the back of box scene shows the olive green
version twice. I think this was an error - I'm 73% sure I've seen a
yellow variant on ebay about a year or so ago - regrettably I didn't
bid on the thing; even though I had no idea what it was at the time,
it did look neat, I think I just didn't have the money. I've included
both pictures of the green version here anyway, just because the toy
looks pretty neat.

ANDRO-BIKE

This
guy is a bit of a different direction. The three moulds shown above
are covered because either they're well-made, or they look well made.
The Andro-Bike is covered because I have him.

There
were three Andro-Vehicles made - Andro-Bike, Andro-Plane and Andro-Tank.
They are small figures, roughly the size of a standard Gobot, entirely
made out of plastic and with friction motors. These motors work in both
modes, either allowing the vehicle mode to move along, or the robot
to walk.

The
toy's a bit of a freak, to be honest. While the alternate mode does
vaguely resemble a motorcycle of some sort, it's very stumpy - the picture
to the left is not distorted, believe it or not.

The
transformation is trickier than it looks, mainly because the little
posts you can just make out on the rear wheels slip inside the handlebars,
forming the legs (well, they don't actually touch the ground, but it's
clear what they're meant to be). The payoff is the motor moves these
and Andro-Bike's weird little arms along when the motor's used. Aside
from this, there's really not much else to do with him (though the neck
does turn...). Andro-Bike is cute, but only for about five minutes...

If
anyone has any more information on Kinsman, or would like to
sell me the jeep, please contact
me =)